


Little Game

by BananasofThorns



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: (kind of?), Character Study, If you made it through the books you'll be fine, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Songfic, it's not as bad as it sounds i promise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-11-02 00:03:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,182
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20553749
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BananasofThorns/pseuds/BananasofThorns
Summary: Hush boy, oh hush boy, don't say a wordThrow on a jersey and no one gets hurtHush girl, oh hush girl, just bat your eyesPlay our little game, play our little game





	Little Game

_ Play us like pawns and relentlessly confine _ _   
_ _ Don’t you think it’s funny how they tell us how to live? _

There is no such thing as free will in the Nest. Everything runs on Riko’s time and Riko’s whims; if he doesn't want you to do something, you will know.

They do everything together; eating, practicing, classes. There is little reprieve. The only highlights are just a lighter grey: Thea, Exy, Jean. Sometimes, Kevin thinks that the Ravens are more like a cult than a team.

He never thinks it too loud, as if Riko will somehow hear it if he does.

You don’t want to incur the wrath of the King.

_ Don’t you think it’s funny how we’re all delinquent kids? _

Neil knows the Foxes have a reputation. All of them have jagged edges; some are smoothed over by time but many of them still as sharp as the day they broke.

It’s kind of funny how damaged ten people can be.

Hours before Seth dies, Andrew leans into Neil’s space with fabricated mania on his breath.

“Oh, rabbit,” he says. There’s a sick kind of glee in his voice. “You’ll fit right in.”

_ Hush boy, oh hush boy, don’t say a word _

There’s nothing Jean can do but stand by and watch as Riko destroys Kevin’s hand. Crunching bone mixes with anguished cries and Jean keeps his eyes fixed on the ground between his feet. He pretends like every sob tearing itself free from Kevin’s mouth doesn’t feel like a stab in the chest.

“You are useless to me,” Riko growls, kicking Kevin to the ground with a single hit to the ribs. “Get out.”

Kevin stumbles to his feet, clutching his hand to his chest. Two drops of blood fall to the ground.

He’s nearly out the door when Riko calls to him. Jean doesn’t need to look up to see the saccharine smile on Riko’s lips and the murder in his eyes.

“Oh, Kevin? Tell anyone what really happened and you’ll never see Jean again.”

_ Throw on a jersey and no gets hurt _

“Put the jersey on, Nathaniel,” Riko hisses. “Dr. Proust is just a phone call away.”

Neil tears the jersey from Riko’s fist, battling down the anger and nausea roiling in his stomach. The number ‘4’ and the name Wesninski stand out bloody red against the rest of the jersey. 

“Put it on,” Riko orders.

Neil glares at him; Andrew laughing and bloodied plays on repeat beneath his eyelids. Riko’s fingers twitch towards his phone, poison in his eyes.

Neil pulls the jersey over his head.

_ Hush girl, oh hush girl, just bat your eyes _

At the beginning of her captaincy, Dan is jealous of Renee.

Some of it, of course, is leftover bitterness from high school. It isn’t easy to like a woman who has been your rival for years.

What Dan envies Renee for most, though, is her always-serene attitude, even in the face of endless misogyny. She doesn’t understand how Renee can be so sweet when even their so-called fans want them off the team.

She asks one night, halfway to drunk after a particularly bad loss. Insults and slurs are still ringing her ears.

“The only reason I have not fought back is that I would do so with knives,” Renee admits, the words dark and bloody against her pastel hair. Her eyes don’t seem as soft anymore. “I do not want to go back to jail.”

When she smiles, it’s as sharp as a blade and stained with sadness.

_ Play our little game _

Looking at Neil feels like a punch straight through his chest to his heart. The hair; reverted to its natural color, it looks like a splash of blood staining Neil’s skull. The eye color; every time Kevin sees it, he’s thrown back to ten years old, watching a man with frozen death eyes cut a man to pieces.

The tattoo; an omen of death.

Neil is simply another pawn in the game, after all. Riko has always been the King.

There is no escape.

_ Welcome to the land of the broken minds _

Jean doesn’t get to say goodbye to his parents.

His last memory of them is this:

A man shows up at their house. He shakes hands with his father and his mother like he’s allowing peasants to touch him. He places a hand on Jean’s shoulder and leads him away. Jean isn’t allowed to look back.

There is a boy waiting for them when they descend into the darkness. He has a brand on his face and he stands like there is a crown on his head. Jean notices him two seconds after he sees a glimpse of pity in emerald eyes.

He joins the line and becomes number three, payment for a debt he never learns the name of.

_ They can't hurt me anymore _

“You’re too late,” Nathaniel tells the paramedic hovering over him. He can feel the manic smile stretching over his lips; it’s a grim mockery of a still-cooling corpse.

“Who are you?” The paramedic asks. 

Nathaniel laughs, loud and haunting and just a bit crazed. He can see his face mirrored in the paramedic’s eyes, drowning in concern.

“My name is Nathaniel Wesninski,” he says, “and my father is dead.”

The words mix with the blood on his lips. He spits it all on the ground and tries not to throw up.

_ There is nothing left to break of me. _ _   
_ _ There's nothing left to take from me. _

Jean stops wondering if he’ll see the sky again after the third time Riko sends him stumbling to the ground in a pool of his blood. At this point, it’s a question of  _ when _ he’ll die, not  _ if _ .

He thinks he blacks out at some point, but it’s so dark in the Nest that he isn’t sure. Either way, there suddenly is an absence of cool metal against his skin and that alone is enough to make Jean wary. There is no way Riko is finished with him.

And then there’s another face above his, all pastel colors; it’s such a bright contrast from Riko’s anger that Jean feels blinded for a moment.

Renee Walker smiles down at him with tears in her eyes and Jean wonders if he really has died, because she looks like an angel.

“Jean,” she says. “I’m taking you home.”

Jean doesn’t think he knows what that word means anymore.

_ 'Cause baby it's easy to fake a smile. _ _   
_ _ When you've been doing it for a while. _

Kevin doesn’t remember the last time he truly smiled. The Foxes like to joke about how he hasn’t done so in so long he’s forgotten how.

Kevin isn’t so sure it’s a joke.

He tries it in the mirror, once. It’s broken and bitter and it looks nothing like a gesture of joy.

He puts on the press-ready smirk, after. It’s as easy as pulling on a mask.

_ Won’t you play with me? _

“You should be Court.” It’s barely a whisper, but it cuts Neil to the bone; a resentful goodbye to a once-bright future.


End file.
